A música Five Years foi escrita por David Bowie, sendo a faixa de abertura do álbum The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars de 1972. A canção narra o anúncio de que a Terra está condenada, com apenas cinco anos restantes de existência humana. Este tema reflete a sensibilidade apocalíptica e o comentário social característico da obra de Bowie no início dos anos 70.
Tom: G
G
Em
A
C
Am
D7
G
Em
Pushing through the market square, so many mothers sighing
A
C
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in
G
Em
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying
A
C
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying
G
I heard telephones, opera house, favorite melodies
Em
I saw boys, toys, electric irons and T.V.'s
A
My brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare
C
I had to cram so many things to store everything in there
Am
C
And all the fat-skinny people,
Am
C
and all the tall-short people,
G
C
and all the nobody people,
D7
and all the somebody people
Am
C
I never thought I'd need so many people
G
Em
A girl my age went off her head, hit some tiny children
A
C
If the black hadn't a-pulled her off, I think she would have killed them
G
Em
A soldier with a broken arm, fixed his stare to the wheels of a Cadillac
A
C
A cop knelt and kissed the feet of a priest,and a queer Threw up at the sight of that
G
Em
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor, drinking milk shakes cold and long
A
C
Smiling and waving and looking so fine, don't think You knew you were in this song
G
And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
Em
And I thought of Ma and I wanted to get back there